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Rivals is reporting that Denton, Texas WR D.J. Beshears (5-9/185) has commited to Mark Mangino and the Jayhawks. Beshears is a three-star by Rivals and is KU's 23rd commitment for the 2009 class.
Flickr photos:
http://flickr.com/photos/80171498@N00/2930898290
http://flickr.com/photos/80171498@N00/2930898126/
Interview with high school coach from October when he was committed to ISU
Hey DJ, could you post an updated list of the all time wins for coaches at KU. I was wondering how close Mangino is to reaching the top of it and if he can do it next year perhaps.
--Fabio
Excellent question. It actually good happen next year as Mark Mangino now has 45 wins. That puts him at number three with an overall record of 45-41 in seven years. A.R. "Bert" Kennedy is number one with a record of 53-9-4, which he achieved also in a seven-year span from 1904-1910. It'll take nine wins to take over the top spot, so it is a possibility. One thing is certain. Glen Mason (47-54-1) is cooked for the number two spot. I think we all feel pretty good about the Fighting Mangino's picking up three wins next year.
Here's the top ten and of course, number eight on the list demonstrates how challenging it's been to get and retain good football coaches at the University of Kansas:
Source: http://cfbdatawarehouse.com/data/div_ia/big12/kansas/coaching_records.php
Nebraska will be travelling to play Washington in 2010 and according to the Seattle Times that game may take place at Qwest Field.
Former KSU strength and conditioning coordinator Rod Cole landed at Tarleton State. He was with K-State for 13 years. According to this page, it doesn't appear that the Wildcats have named a replacement.
The Shiver has another rundown on WR commit Erick McGriff today. In this piece, they speak directly to McGriff.
The most reliable Kevin Young is at KU report we have so far (from the Phog Gridiron forum).
And finally, KUsports.com columnist Bill Mayer promises everyone a postcard from hell in his latest religion and football post. Required reading.
The KU blogs are working hard this week. I found a couple of recruiting profiles/stories in the feed this morning:
Denverjhawk has spoke with WR commit Chris Omigie and has a good report on that encounter over at Rock Chalk Talk:
"... expectations for his time at Kansas he said he hopes to come in and play as soon as possible. His biggest goal however is to, 'Win the Big 12 as a team and individually help to accomplish that.' Chris particularly is looking forward to a matchup with Oklahoma although he said it seems that Kansas, 'doesn't like Missouri too much so it will be fun to play them too.'"
To bookend that perfectly, The Shiver put together a nice piece on WR commit Erick McGriff:
“Playmaker. He is a money player. If we needed something to happen, we put the ball in his hands."
--McGriff's high school coach John Ross
THE WINNING TRADITION BEGINS
You can't say that it was the greatest game from a competitive standpoint or that it had near the prestige of the contests we've battled in over the past couple of years. Still, at the time, the 42-13 Fort Worth Bowl win over Houston to cap off the careers of a lot Mangino's first era players felt pretty good and has the following distinctions:
KU quarterback Jason Swanson was the game MVP hitting on 19-of-29 passes for 307 yards and four TDs, but it was team effort overall. Brian Murph took a punt return to the house. Jon Cornish had a big game (101 yds) and of course, the KU defense suffocated the Houston attack. The play that stood out for me though, was the Charlton Keith snag of Kevin Kolb's sideline pass and the resulting dive into the endzone. That all happened right in front of me and the KU fan section, so we had an up-close view of that action. The video doesn't do it justice.
PHOTO THAT SAYS IT ALL:
http://www2.kusports.com/photos/galleries/2005/dec/23/ku_vs_houston_122305/9546/
VIDEO LINKS:
6sports summary: http://www2.kusports.com/videos/2005/dec/23/7766/
Fan pep rally footage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBRuM1LHfD0
QUOTES:
"That was a huge win for us. We practiced for three weeks and have been going at it since last November, so it was sweet to have something at the end of the tunnel for us."
--Jason Swanson"Our defense shut the run down. They did a nice job of dinking and dunking for a little while. But our guys wore them down up front."
--Mark Mangino"Our defense shut the run down. They did a nice job of dinking and dunking for a little while. But our guys wore them down up front."
--Mark Mangino"We've come a long way. It's pretty neat to be a part of the foundation."
--Nick Reid"I don't think the score is indicative of tonight's game. We had some bad things happen. We didn't coach or play very well so that's why things turned out the way it did."
--Art Briles (Houston coach at the time)
7 of 12 | More from Mangino's Greatest Hits
In the final analysis, the Big 12 did end up being the best conference in football for the 2008 season. Not at playing actual football of course. No, no, no ... the Big 12 is the best at entertaining. According to wizofodds.com, the Big 12 had the highest cumulative TV rating average during bowl season. The data is much easier to see on Tim Griffin's blog. Basically though, the Big 12 pulled a 6.13, followed by the Big 10 with 5.70 and the SEC with 5.65. Live with that Tim Tebow. Live with that and know it.
Question: Why can't the real media blogs have a blog roll?
Are kidding me? I was just thinking today that I'm going to have to figure out something new to keep up with KU football recruiting. So, now Scout.com unleashes this recruiting widget. Heck, if I would have known you would feed in a rated recruiting list to my site, you would have had me a long time ago. I might even get premium membership now. How about whipping up a schedule widget, maybe standings as well? Although I could use those a little narrower.
I've already got this thing on the Hawk Digest recruiting page, so it'll always be available there (too wide for my front page). Hiphop -- you stay away from this thing I found it first.
A few notes on the Big 12 North from the weekend ...
JEFF SPIKES STILL ON AN UPWARD CURVE
We got to know quite a bit about right tackle Jeff Spikes in a KUsports.com piece this morning. As we all probably know, he's still developing and is pretty self-aware of that fact. He named the Mizzou game as his best performance and Nebraska game as his toughest. Comments on Huskers battle:
“That’s when I saw the most unfamiliar things happen with the defense. There were things I hadn’t experienced. There were techniques I hadn’t played against. That was really unfamiliar for me, and that made me not play in my element. I wasn’t too sure, wasn’t comfortable. But I learned the most from that game just because I had the experience of going through things like that I hadn’t seen before. I learned more that game than the first three games of the season.”
CHASE DANIEL PLAYED HURT?
The Columbia Tribune has an article where Chase Daniel describes a thumb injury that he played with in the later part of the year. I'd definitely buy that it affected his accuracy in the Northwestern game.
MU LOOKING AT AN LSU ASSISTANT
Dave Matter from Tribune also reports that LSU tight ends coach Josh Henson is possible target for a position on the MU staff in his Behind the Stripes blog. The main take from this article is the LSU situation is kind of a mess and the Tigers might land a good recruiter out of the deal. Excerpt:
Late last month, it was reported by some media outlets that Henson would be relieved of his recruiting coordinator duties at LSU as Miles was prepared to hire former Mississippi Coach Ed Orgeron to take on that role. However, Tennessee moved in and hired Orgeron first. Miles has since shaken up his LSU coaching staff, adding three new assistants in recent weeks. Henson is widely considered one of the nation’s premier recruiters. LSU’s 2009 collection of verbal commitments is currently ranked No. 1 by Rivals.com.
Rivals has released a pre-season top 25 for 2009 and has KU at #19. Nebraska was in the "others receiving consideration" category. It's going to be an interesting perspective next year. I certainly have no experience heading into a season as a division favorite.
KUsports.com is reporting that Louisville's Bill Miller will join the KU staff as the linebackers coach and co-defensive coordinator for Clint Bowen. That means that Steve Tovar appears to be moving on. The shift in personnel was a little surprising, but Miller is a veteran and should be a great asset. The odd thing is that I was thinking we were in the market for a d-line coach.
A lot of action this week. Let's get right to it ...
KEVIN YOUNG SEES THE LIGHT
I couldn't have been more shocked yesterday to see that Olathe three-star DE Kevin Young de-committed from Nebraska and re-committed to KU. Though I think we are still want to see him on campus before we celebrate, it's hard not to get excited about adding another DE to this class, which happens to be the best of the Mark Mangino era. I'd also like to think that Hawk Digest played a part in the switchback with this post. Thank you Mrs. Rake for those persuasive writing tips back high school. You were right, it finally paid off.
JEREMY MACLIN SEES THE LIGHT TOO
Well, I'm not going to claim to be a superfan of Jeremy Maclin or anything. I mean, I don't think he's ever been to a leper colony and his family wasn't featured for 60 minutes during the Alamo Bowl. Still, that guy can play football, and I am very excited to see him in an NFL uniform and out of the traditional mustard and black. KU-bias aside, it was the right decision as there's really no reason to take a beating next year training a brand new QB. He would have been a heavy target for defenses next year. Despite losing most of their key components, Mizzou fans don't really need to panic. They don't have to play with the all of the projected division winner hype next year and Jayhawk fans can tell you that's not such a bad place to make a run from. For Kansas, beware of the shunned Tiger.
MICHAEL CRABTREE NOT TO BE OUTDONE
Really, you can use the Maclin text above to describe the Michael Crabtree to the NFL decision. Trade the mustard for red and you might mention the difference between Mike Leach and Gary Pinkel when assessing Tech's outlook for 2009. Best of luck and we definitely will not miss you when we visit Lubbock next year.
SPEAKING OF GARY PINKEL
Is it my imagination or did KU and Mark Mangino really minimize the amount of game management errors that we had this season? For the most part, Mangino's been pretty good, but the occasional puzzler would come up a few times during the course of the season. Thinking back, I just couldn't come up with anything too big for 2008.
KANSAS JAYHAWK FOOTBALL RECRUITING ON FIRE
Yes, I am now four players behind on my list -- DE Kevin Young, WR Chris Omigie, WR Erick McGriff and JUCO DE Quintin Woods. All of them are great pickups. Check out our current conference rank and overall rank (32) with Rivals.
THE BRYCE BROWN SITUATION
You've probably heard that five-star Wichita running back Bryce Brown is taking a visit to Manhattan Tech this weekend. He's currently a soft verbal to Miami. His brother Arthur was a five-star LB that is already on the Miami roster. There are all kinds of rumors surrounding this situation (like Arthur is considering a transfer). So, I'd have to say if KSU does somehow land Bryce that would certainly dispel some of the concerns about whether or not Bill Snyder can still recruit. Of course, landing a player from Wichita is a little different than a Texas prospect. Still, it'll be interesting to see how that one plays out. Also, I have a question. Can someone remind me what KU did to the Brown family?
KIETZMAN AND ORANGEBLOODS
Listening to some sports talk radio here in Kansas City this week, I caught the last part WHB 810's Kevin Kietzman talking with a member of the Orangebloods.com staff about college football and the BCS versus a playoff. I didn't catch his name, but he brought up something to consider. We all feel a playoff is inevitable and the interesting thing will be when we look back on the time that we didn't have one. I think he mentioned like fifty years later and his take was that the national championships prior to a playoff won't be viewed the same way. You know they won't be quite as legitimate. I can definitely see that. Sort of like KU basketball fans look at the 1922 and 1923 national championships. So why do we keep letting the years pass by? Of course, KU has a vested interest in the current system, but I'll get into that next week.
DJ Goodwin
